Poll: How Would You Grade Xbox's Gamescom 2021 Showcase?

It’s was ok as sort of expected.
They seem to be leaving Halo campaign gameplay and news a bit late in the year, considering release is this fall 2021.
We normally get a lot of fanfare etc by now.
A very toned down approach if you ask me.

No information on Halo’s release date worries me..

No CrossfireX 😔

I want that Forza controller.

Edit: Never mind, it’s $75.

Why are we not hearing a release date for Halo???

C/D, def couldve shaved off an hour, made a 30ish minute direct style video and it would've been 1000 times better. So much filler and wasted time.

Absolutely terrible showcase, barely passable. No Halo Infinite, no Scorn, but at least they showed The Gunk (and it's apparently coming in December according to a blog post). Too much talking. They could've easily just made this into a Nintendo Direct-style presentation that went on for 30 minutes with all the trailers instead of having us go through 1.5 hours of people talking and history lessons. This is the reason why Sony doesn't even attend E3 and Gamescom anymore because they've adopted a different style through their State of Play. At least Microsoft's E3 was great, but this one was truly awful.

@LtSarge To be fair they did actually say what this was going to be before and that’s exactly what it was. I mean they said no major reveals and no surprises etc. I think there was even mention of it being like the extend showcase in June. I kind of had a feeling.

I’m glad for more Psychonauts 2 coverage but Forza could do a 20 minute direct on its own.

I like these presentations. I like hearing from the developers first hand and seeing how excited they are about their product gives me a little bit of hope. I gave it a B. I love how Microsoft releases games and continually updates them with content. Cloud gaming on consoles is huge. Competitive mode in flight sim is huge. Forza is huge. The gunk looks great.

@The_New_Butler I'd totally believe that. I mean, they keep showing off gameplay for Forza Horizon 5 but nothing for Halo Infinite and not even a release date, which FH5 has also gotten. People should be worried at this rate.

I tried watching live and had to turn it off. Maybe I’m getting old but they seem to find THE most annoying people to talk about and say they’re playing games, i can’t watch that *****. So I give it a D.

Watched a few trailers and not much caught my eye, Forza Horizon 5 looks really good though.

There has to be a Halo thing happening this week or this makes absolutely zero sense. Disappointed in no info on Bright Memory Infinite, Scorn, and CrossfireX tho...

@mousieone They could've shown off Halo Infinite, Fable, State of Decay 3, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, Scorn, CrossfireX, Hellblade 2, Perfect Dark basically a bunch of already announced Xbox titles. They aren't new reveals, we already know about these games.

Also, the fact that they've stated beforehand what the show is going to be like doesn't justify how poor it was. It's like saying "Well our show is going to be an absolute turd, so just keep that in mind", lol. At the end of the day, this was an unnecessarily long showcase that they could've compiled better.

The Gunk looks good, FH5 looks amazing, but where was Halo. Sorry Microsoft this is your big hitter Christmas/holiday release and no info what so ever. This game is still in trouble. I have no problem waiting but do the decent thing and communicate will your fans

@The_New_Butler wouldn’t surprise me if it’s all true at this point. 343 management should be ashamed and replaced once this is out to be honest.

It was okay. The canned banter was a little cringe-worthy.

Glad to see more of The Gunk - I am really looking forward to that one.

I can't lie, That was pretty boring to watch.. Overall i give it a D-

Both Sony and Microsoft are playing their possible big 2021 fall release very close.
No release dates for Halo or HZDFW and slightly quiet on both and it’s almost September.
For me I don’t care about Halo for this 2021 fall release. I have FH5 and Farcy 6 and dying light 2.
Also there are two other FPS on top of Farcry 6, COD and Battlefield.

@The_New_Butler
Totally agree I’m a big Halo campaign guy.
If it is mediocre especially in front of farcry 6 and COD then Halo campaign has failed and so have 343.

@Dezzy70 @The_New_Butler I have a feeling there will be a very unpopular move with Halo Infinite campaign in that the native last-gen version is completely canned and will only be playable on X1/X1X via Cloud on Console.

Multiplayer will still be native (albeit at 30fps), but Campaign will be Series/PC exclusive.

@oconnoclast Haha yeah, that was what I was referring to! I can't believe they decided to include that, lol.

@The_New_Butler Here's the thing, they should delay the game again in order to make sure the campaign will turn out great but I'm fairly certain upper management isn't going to allow another delay at this point. So either the devs crunch like hell until it feels right to release the full game, or the game is going to release anyway but the campaign might be riddled with bugs or just not be up to speed as what we have hoped it to be. Either way, I'm just not confident in this game anymore.

@GamingFan4Lyf
Being honest I always wanted a true next generation Halo so that suits me fine, take advantage of the series x 12tflop etc and give a Halo campaign that is second to none.

@LtSarge Minus Halo the rest would still be “major” as no actual footage from those games have been shown. Well maybe not Scorn I’ll give you that one. Still based on what they said I knew none of those games would be there. Again everyone went in expecting content they told you wouldn’t be there, and then get upset. I don’t why they bother with hyping events like this and that’s on them. However, it’s still partially fan expectations for these things that upset people.

@The_New_Butler see this why I don’t understand why they don’t just release MP in beta mode and delay the actual part of the game people will be paying money for.

FH5 is big enough to hold holiday especially since there isn’t anything else there really like it.

Was what I expected to be honest. Great news about Cloud on consoles. All in all it was a good show.

@Ocat delayed to 2022

@Dezzy70 I mean, it would make people happy, but it would still frustrate a lot of people as I am sure there are a bunch of people hoping to play the game on last-gen while waiting to upgrade.

The only thing that would help is if Microsoft is starting to stockpile Series consoles in anticipation for a mass release during the holiday season.

I am only spit-balling, but the release of Cloud on Console being the same time period as Halo Infinite seems a little too coincidental - especially with the whole section on "Gen8 playing Gen9 games" part of the announcement.

@mousieone Well that's your interpretation of what they said and I have my interpretation of what they said. "No major gameplay reveals" would've made it more clear. Like I said though, it doesn't matter if they tell you beforehand that the show is going to be poor. If you don't have anything worth showing, then don't show it at all, especially not at a huge event like Gamescom. I mean for crying out loud, they decided to spend 5-10 minutes telling us how a trebuchet works.

@Dezzy70 at least Forza Horizon 5 is out this year for Xbox and it looks great. It’s a big title, maybe not as iconic as Halo but still. It’s looking really barren over on the PlayStation side this fall. It’ll still sell like hot cakes though.

They delivered what they promised, gave me something to part listen to as I clipped out a million things from my D&LIII Kickstarter

@LtSarge like I get that. I do. But the exact tweet was-

“ Running about 90 min & focused on game updates coming this year. So to set expectations, no new reveals or major surprises”

With “updates coming this year” sort of negates anything but Flight Sim, FH5, Psychonauts 2, AOE4, and Halo.

That said that feature was clearly for AoE players just like the Flight Sim content.

I honestly think Halo not being there is a bigger issue and speaks to a larger problem because that was the one thing I thought should be there.

@Fenbops
Thank god for Playground games, that studio always gets it right. FH5 here we come.
As always though to many new games at Christmas that’s why I’m not that fussed about Halo getting delayed until next year.

@mousieone Alright, I'll give you that. But I still found it boring due to all the talking. It definitely could've been presented better, most of it just felt like filler. Do we really need to know how a trebuchet works? Is it really necessary to announce on a Gamescom showcase that Sea of Thieves is getting a Borderlands-themed ship? Stuff like that. It's just not fitting for a huge event like this and like I said previously, the mistake they made was to have this show go for 1.5 hours. 30 minutes, Direct-style, that would've made it so much better.

@GamingFan4Lyf
Microsoft could of and maybe still could do, smash it this fall, they have FH5 if they had a full complete Halo and a campaign that is 10/10.
Then more series x consoles available they would have been unstoppable this Christmas in the USA and UK.

I'd say it was a D rank, a really odd stream particularly the absence of Halo Infinite but there were good parts like the FH5 and Flight Sim segments as well as finding out exactly how xCloud will work for console.

@Fenbops - Couldnt agree more, do Xbox actually focus on hiring presenters that literally make me cringe every time they're on screen... Its actually painful.

And on another note... My goodness... Forza is looking brain meltingly spectacular. Cannot wait.

All I’m waiting for now is Sony to pop up very very soon with a HZDFW release trailer with some gameplay, exclusive to PS4 & PS5 releasing December the 3rd 2021.
And their suits grinning this is how you do it.
Subtle but delivery the goods.

@LtSarge I think Forza could have had it’s own show.

Then yeah I agree the rest could have been squished into something leas dev interview ish like E3 was. I do think the deep dive into Psychonauts 2 was necessary but that could have closed this out.

That said they may have planned this thinking Halo was going to be there because these usually take months to come together. It’s entirely possible this was supposed to be the campaign reveal …

I didn't mind it. I had my expectations in check.

It was...fine. Nothing blew my socks off, only real standouts for me is the Humble integration and the absurd content for MFS.

I give it a B. Some great looking content for MFS. I'm hyped for State of Decay 2 Homecoming. The Gunk has my interest. Also looking forward to Crusader Kings 3, which definitely boosted the rating for me.

Would of been an A if we seen more of halo, as dusk falls, scorn, and Crossfire X but I have game pass and back log to keep me busy.

It has always been interesting to me how certain developers attract alot of sympathy and understanding, but some only receive hate and hyperbole. No release date for some games, no problem, don't rush it. No release for halo? End of world, 343 are rubbish, incompetent and its the end of one of the biggest entertainment franchises on the planet. The Internet is so perfectly balanced

This was one of the better formats they've had. Definitely could've benefitted from more trailera for new titles. Wasn't annoying at all, interviews were a good length and interesting for the most part.

I quite like the format, interviews followed by trailers. It's interesting to hear from the developers and you can forgive them for being a little awkward, as it's not a big part of their job and sometimes English is a second language. As for the presenters, I found the two female presenters quite annoying, the bloke was alright even with his Top Gun glasses moment.

Although it was massively out of context and a filler, I also enjoyed the Trebuchet documentary.

Some decent games but that presentation should have been 45 minutes tops. So much impossibly boring filler.

Voted E for everyone, don't care about the first party games so this wasn't for me at all. Expected more gamepass related news or anything else really, so really bad.